Recently, I had the chance to hear legendary football coach Lou Holtz deliver a keynote address. He’s best known for turning around the Notre Dame football program, and one of my favorite factoids about that process is that he removed player names from the backs of jerseys, to emphasize “team” rather than “individual hero.” As … Read more
Effective communication avoids misunderstandings. It can also clear up existent misunderstandings. In our quest to be understood, we may accidentally slip into using one of these versions of a potentially manipulative accusation: “You misunderstood me.”“You must have misunderstood me.”“You don’t get it; you’re not listening.”“If you really heard what I said, you’d understand.” Even though … Read more
Maturity in the Moment is how your actions affect others around you as well as yourself. And in times of change, these actions intensify. Notice that Selfish and Independent fall below the dotted line. The best leaders will avoid these levels when dealing with someone who is already there. Assuming negative intent may pull leaders below the … Read more
Recently, The Leader Campus released a video interview with Jim Kouzes of The Leadership Challenge. I encourage you to watch the whole thing. But here are some of my main takeaways, in case you don’t want to make time to watch it now. One big point from the latest research: While the context for leadership keeps changing, … Read more
In the December 29 Business Record, my friend Sarah Noll Wilson shared her thoughts on intentions. I’ve learned this year that sometimes we have sneaky, shadow intentions that may influence our actions and conversations without even knowing. Now when something doesn’t go quite right, I ask myself what my real intention was in this situation. If … Read more
I’ve written a lot on this blog about being others-focused instead of being self-focused. If I asked, I’m sure you could come up with a list of outward behaviors for each of the two categories. On the self-focused list would probably be words like tardiness, frowning, complaining, ignoring others’ needs, and declining to help. Words … Read more
At 90 Ideas, Tej Dhawan started off with a key idea: Give first. He was mostly talking about the ethic in the start-up community, how entrepreneurs help each other out as a habit. A great Iowa example is EntreFest, an annual program for entrepreneurs with dozens of sessions led, pro bono, by entrepreneurs who are … Read more
I’ve heard a few versions of “Ask yourself if it needs to be said” before speaking out loud. When I heard Kristi Knous speak recently at the 90 Ideas event, I appreciated her 3 questions for leaders before speaking. I wrote Kristi, as I wanted to get her words just right, and she graciously emailed … Read more
In earlier posts, we’ve looked at the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and we’ve looked at DiSC. Please look back for a refresher if you need one. Most teams struggle with the “Trust” and “Conflict” behaviors, and this series of short posts examines the ways each DiSC style can influence those areas. The Conscientiousness style can … Read more
In earlier posts, we’ve looked at the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, and we’ve looked at DiSC. Please look back for a refresher if you need one. Most teams struggle with the “Trust” and “Conflict” behaviors, and this series of short posts examines the ways each DiSC style can influence those areas. The Steadiness style can … Read more